The Choir has received excellent news about the progress being made by Joan Carden Award winners, Rachel Bate (2010) and Emma Moore (2011).

Rachel, who is undertaking a Young Artist’s Program in Cologne, after winning the German Opera Award in 2010, recently made her operatic debut on the stage of the Cologne Opera as Contessa Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto. She reports that she is having a wonderful time working with a fantastic cast (as can be seen from the photo below).

Meanwhile, Emma has won a full German Government scholarship for her Masters course in Opera at the University of the Arts in Berlin. She reports that she is doing a good deal of study with the outstanding American soprano, Deborah Polaski (Polaski specializes in the German repertoire and sang in Sydney in Opera Australia’s production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra some years ago) and is loving being in such a culturally rich city and being inspired by the staff and colleagues at the university. Emma has had a number of performance opportunities in Berlin, having sung the Bach cantata, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, and the soprano solo in Mozart’s ‘Great’ C Minor Mass, performed by us in May 2005.

Both Rachel and Emma have fond memories of their association with Christopher Bowen and the Choir and send their best wishes to all.